Marcelo Rios in beach tennis exhibition

On the morning of 24 February, a festival took place in the Chilean city of Vina del Mar on the nation’s Pacific coast. Part of the celebrations saw beach tennis play a role with the main attraction featuring three Chilean beach tennis players in Vicente Brusadelli, Maria Paz Orellana and Francisca Zuniga.

Joining them for a mixed-doubles exhibition match was former ATP world No. 1 Marcelo Rios. Rios partnered Francisca Zuniga as the four players kept the crowd entertained for 40 minutes.

Also in attendance was another hero of Chilean tennis; two-time gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics and current Chilean Davis Cup captain, Nicolas Massu.

The fun continued after the exhibition as the festival looked to crown a ‘Queen of the Festival’, with the contestants all getting in on the beach tennis action.

All this served as a great promotion of Beach Tennis in Chile and came in advance of World Tennis Day activities planned by the La Rama de Tenis y Squash club, the largest club in Chile, on 3 March.

Further promotion of the sport will also take place on 10-17 March in Santiago at the ODESUR games.